1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of recycling garbage and particularly refers to the disposal and recycling of all kind of trash for obtaining a useful material and products, the trash including home garbage, industrial effluents, pathological trash, even dangerous highly contaminating residues. The invention relates to methods for neutralizing the contaminating activity of the residues and transforming the trash into inert and useful products, the trash also including industry slurries, wasted hydrocarbons, wasted products from fuel service stations, paints, food, batteries, oils, pathological residues from hospitals, contaminating products in general, the useful products obtained from the inventive method comprises a chemically stable, glassy, vitreous, non contaminating material, capable of being used in multiple applications.
To the purpose of the present specification the term trash must be understood as including all kind of garbage from homes, industries, hospitals, and all other trash that may be incinerated into ashes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The disposal of the trash is a world wide concern, particularly in those most crowded urban centers, specially the handling and disposal of the dangerous and contaminating trash resulting from the practicing of modern industrial technologies, from hospitals using more and more disposable elements and even from homes. Many solutions have been tried to dispose the trash without future consequences to the environment.
One of the most widely used process to dispose trash, particularly non dangerous, non contaminating garbage, is the incineration of the trash to obtain ashes. The ashes are then disposed in containers, some of them hermetic containers, and the containers are buried. Those ashes that are analyzed by Governmental Authorities and contamination levels are detected are not allowed to be buried and the disposal of the containers results in a problem to the Governments.
As to the highly contaminating residues, such as batteries and, dangerous chemical effluents, many countries are studying a way to dispose the same without risk to the community, but not final and convincing solutions have been found. One attempt to dispose of this dangerous trash was to compact the trash and encapsulate the same into a glass cover that, when solidified, entirely encloses the trash isolating the same from the outer environment. Those glass capsules are then buried. The decomposition of the garbage, however, generates gases that produces splits, cracks and fissures in the glass cell with the contaminating gasses and mass of the trash leaking out of the glass container to the soil, contaminating the phreatic layers.
Other similar techniques consist of compacting the trash and encapsulating the same in metal or concrete containers with caps, which containers are closed with the caps, sealed and disposed at the sea. With a similar behavior as described in relation to the glass buried containers, the trash, under a chemical non stable conditions, causes the container to be broken under the inner gas pressure, with the contaminating residues leaking out of the container to the environment.
It would be therefore necessary to count on a process that may guarantee a chemically-stable, safety disposal of trash, whereby the trash may be disposed without contamination activity in the trash per se, that is, with the trash entirely neutralized as to its original contaminating activity, whereby the trash, in an inert state, may be used as a recycling product.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,737 to Duane A. Mosch discloses a method of recycling mixed colored cullet into amber, green, or flint glass by using gypsum. It is well known that while the calcium sulphate is a good flux, the gypsum obtained after calcination of the calcium sulphate products bubbles and granules in the melting process of the glass.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,251 to Simpson et al. relates to the manufacturing of ceramic tiles from industrial waste. The process includes melting a material to form a glass melt, treating the glass melt to produce a solid glass product, grinding the solid glass product to produce glass particles having a particle size of less than 200 microns, mixing the glass particles with a first additive to form a glass powder mixture having a composition of 55 to 99 wt. % glass particles and 45-1 wt. % first additive, forming the glass powder mixture into tiles by dry pressing, where the tiles have a primary crystalline phase selected from the group consisting of nepheline, diopside, anorthite, wollastonite, melilite, merwinite, opinel, akermanite, gehlenite, crystalline phases based on iron substitution in the crystalline phase, and mixture thereof. The process includes a devitrifying step where the solid glass product is devitrified prior to the grinding step of the glass particles in the tile are devitrified after the forming step. Because of the constituents used in the process of Simpson, a cyclone furnace must be used.
3. Summary of the Invention
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for recycling trash, even dangerous and contaminating trash, by entirely neutralizing the contaminating activity of the trash.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a stable material by recycling trash, the material being capable of being molded or converted into powder to be used in multiple applications such as in building construction, in manufacturing of tiles, lining, ballast, paving, fillers, etc.
It is further object of the present invention to provide a method for recycling trash and industrial slurry effluents by: mixing the trash and the industrial slurry effluents; adding a composition containing 30% Sodium Sulphate, 7% Quartz, 20% Calcium Carbonate, 23% Sodium Carbonate, 13% Organic Sulphate (consisting of 20% Sodium Sulphate and 80% Carbon Hydrates) and 7% Calcium Fluor to form a mixture mass, the composition comprising the 10-20 weight % of the mixture; mixing the trash, the industrial slurry effluents and the composition, under agitation, during 20 to 40 minutes in a container; subjecting the mixture mass to a thermochemical transformation by melting the mass at a temperature of at least 1300.degree. C., preferably between 1300 to 1670.degree. C., most preferably between 1300 to 1580.degree. C., to obtain a glassy substance; and cooling down the substance.
It is even another object of the present invention to carry out the incineration of the trash, with the exception of the hydrocarbons and industrial slurry effluents, before the first step of mixing, and mixing the ashes with said hydrocarbons and the industrial slurries.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a process wherein the mixture mass consists of hydrocarbons and said slurry effluents, with a composition containing 30% Sodium Sulphate, 7% Quartz, 20% Calcium carbonate, 23% Sodium Carbonate, 13% Organic Sulphate (consisting of 20% Sodium Sulphate and 80% Carbon Hydrates) and 7% Calcium Fluor, the composition comprising the 10-20 weight percentage of the mixture to form a mixture mass.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a process wherein the mixture mass comprises ashes obtained from a preliminary incineration of the trash other than the hydrocarbons and said slurry effluents, the mixture mass comprises ashes including hydrocarbons and said slurry effluents and the mixture mass comprises trash, hydrocarbons and said slurry effluents, and toxic ashes; with a composition containing 30% Sodium Sulphate, 7% Quartz, 20% Calcium Carbonate, 23% Sodium Carbonate, 13% Organic Sulphate (consisting of 20% Sodium Sulphate and 80% Carbon Hydrates) and 7% Calcium Fluor to form a mixture mass, the composition comprising the 10-20 weight percentage of the mixture, wherein the toxic ashes are lb weight percentage of the mixture mass.
Briefly, it is another object of the invention to provide a glassy substance capable of being molded into solid stable pieces or converted into powder, and used in multiple applications like in construction, general industry, manufacturing of tiles, linings, ballast, etc.